478 FLIGHT, 16 September I960
SPADEADAM...
ground level. It is linked with the stands by an undergroundconcrete duct 7ft square and 1,100ft long, within which are
routed over 8,000 electrical cables. The blockhouse is equippedwith optical and TV viewing arrangements, and each firing is
recorded by remotely controlled cameras located all around thestands. Eight consoles control the engine under test and the
instrumentation. Among the latter the chief installations are130 pen/chart recorders and four 24-channel oscillographs.
Rolls-Royce counted-down a complete powerplant in A2 forour benefit, but owing to failure of the fuel pressure to reach the
required value the two engines shut down after about 1.5sec,just as full thrust was reached. A special evaluation powerplant,
this engine ran for lOOsec later in the day to atone for its havingended a successful run of 30 firings. Altogether the RZ-2 has been
fired about 300 times, 35 firings being on the complete doublepowerplant. Variation in the lox reference pressure enables the
thrust to be controlled over a wide range, and reliability is out-standing. Controlled runs have been made from 2sec up to many
A Blue Streak on its transporter; the arrow points to one of the four
jacks which stretch the airframe to prevent it from collapsing
minutesj, and the engine is fairly regarded as a space-age DartMissile Test Area Out in the wilds to the north, the MTA
contains two test stands each capable of exploring every system—apart from the warhead—in the Blue Streak. Missiles are
brought in on their transporters with engines attached. Thetug pulls the missile on to the 300ft concrete causeway at the far
end of which is located the stand. It then reverses the transporteragainst the link frame positioned on the causeway, provided with
lugs which engage in trunnions on the launcher, and is fmallvdisconnected. The transporter and missile are pulled up vertically
by cables from the tower until the missile skirt engages with thehold-down claws on the launcher (Flight for March 11, page 329)
Finally the transporter is lowered again, coupled up to the tug anddriven off.
The complete tower weighs 450 tons and rests on four multi-wheel bogies driven by battery-fed motors. It is designed to
withstand 80kt winds statically (about 40kt on the move), andwhen the checkout is complete is rolled away to the far end of
the causeway. It may be of comfort to British readers to knowthat the launcher claws on these stands (C2 and C3) differ from
the operational system in that they can be disengaged only bya laborious manual screwjack system, which certainly could not be
reached while an engine was firing.
During a firing trial the complete stand area is evacuated, andthe operation is controlled from a blockhouse 1,000ft away.
Here again optical, episcope, TV and cine cameras are used to seewhat is going on, and the principal instrumentation (by D.H.
Propellers and Metrovick, rather than by Pye) comprises 19control consoles, 4 checkout consoles, 27 pen/chart recorders
covering 216 channels and four types of magnetic-tape recorderwith a total of 49 tape channels. Each stand is linked to the block-
house by over 3,500 wires, the majority of which are run aboveground in conduits which leap over the access roads via impressive
bridges. It would be a pity if this place becomes redundant, justas it is nearing completion.
A COMPLETELY NEW HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT
The Aeroplane: An Historical Survey of its Origins and Development,by Charles H. Gibbs-Smith. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London.
Price £1 15s. Illustrated.
ANY resemblance between this book and previous histories ofL flying is purely coincidental. After years of patient and
fruitful research, Charles Gibbs-Smith has presented us witha completely new assessment of the worth and work of the pioneers
—and presented is the correct term—for he has given it to theScience Museum as a successor to the late M. J. B. Davy's popular
but out-dated Historical Survey of heavier-than-air aircraft.
A first indication of the extent to which we must rsvise our ideason early history was given by Mr Gibbs-Smith's article entitled
"Hops and Flights" in the April 3, 1959, issue of Flight. In thisbook the process is carried further. The author deals with the
fame and claims of men like Stringfellow, Moore-Brabazon andRoe in a manner almost as merciless as that of Nasser's minions
when they toppled the statue of de Lesseps from its plinth nearthe Suez Canal, although he expresses regret at having to do so.
In their places we have a number of new heroes. Cayley isrevealed in his full greatness as the designer and builder of the
first successful man-carrying glider. Felix Du Temple receivesdue credit for the first man-carrying powered aeroplane to make
a "hop." Horatio Phillips goes on record as the first person tomake a powered flight in the UK, in a device that looked more like
a runner bean frame than an aeroplane. Only the Wright brothersseem to emerge with their traditional glory untarnished. Indeed,
it is given a new sparkle by Mr Gibbs-Smith who adds to theirachievements the first aeroplane flight with a passenger—an
exploit formerly attributed mistakenly to Delagrange.
This brings us to our only adverse criticism of what is otherwisean altogether superb and invaluable work of reference. The
author is so great an admirer of the Wrights that he persists inclaiming that Orville's historic first flight on December 17, 1903,
covered 470-600ft through the air, rather than 120ft over theground, because it was made into a headwind.
Setting aside the obvious arguments against accepting flight"through the air" as the basis for measuring distances flown, its
adoption in this context results from Mr Gibbs-Smith's statedbelief that the Wrights "alone among the first pioneers deliberately
flew into a wind." There is no proof that this is so. In fact, itwould be strange if not one of the other pioneers pointed his
aeroplane into wind, when small boys have known for centuriesthat a kite flies better when towed into wind.
At the other extreme, the author still does less than justice toA. V. Roe. He states that "the question of whether Roe's 'flights'
of up to 180ft were aided by a downhill accelerated take-off mustremain for ever unsolved." Yet "A. V." himself stated in February
1956 that "he would like it to be known that all his towing andflight trials were made on the level part of the finishing straight
and not down the slope." To anyone who knew "A. V." thisis the answer to Mr Gibbs-Smith's question. Certainly it is better
evidence than a photograph which shows the 1908 Roe aeroplaneon (not at the top of) the pull-up slope at Brooklands, minus
engine, and which proves only that this was a good place to takea photograph. Circumstantial evidence is good enough to hang
a man but not to form a basis for history!
However, there are few histories which are not tinged with thepersonal likes and dislikes of their authors, and those few are
probably so bloodless that they are not worth reading. In thiscase, anyone who delves deeply into the book's 375 pages and
200,000 words will find hours of pleasure and a wealth of little-known detail. He will discover, for example, that an Englishman
named M. P. W. Boulton invented a method of control identicalwith the modern aileron system in 1868. Had it not been over-
looked, the history of the practical aeroplane would have beenradically different, since it was the problem of achieving lateral
stability and control that plagued the Wrights, Langley, Curtissand the whole "European School" 30-40 years later.
Apart from its tremendous detail, the major quality of this bookis its scrupulous accuracy of facts and figures. One can find a few
minor slips. For example, the Snark missile is said to have ramjetpower in the caption to the frontispiece, and the Short-Mayo
Composite is credited with the first launching of one aeroplanefrom another, when this was in fact done 22 years earlier by the
Porte Baby/Bristol Bullet "composite." But what does this matter?The small errors concern comparatively modern aviation, in which
the author is not particularly interested. The all-important truthis that no author has ever before offered so many facts about the
pioneer days of flight, or devoted so much time and effort toensuring their reliability.
The glory of the book is that, apart from its worth as a workof reference, one can pick it up at odd moments and read some-
thing to suit all moods. There are three-and-a-half pages on theRheims Flying Meeting of 1909, an article on "Bird Flight and
the Man-Powered Aeroplane," a Chronology and Glossary, adelightful "First Eye-Witness Account of a Powered Aeroplane
Flight" by the Wrights in 1904, and even a dissertation on theEarth's atmosphere. The happiest touch of all can be mentioned
in the author's own words: "Between the History and the Com-mentary, I have placed an Interlude of prose and poetry to remind
myself, and perhaps others, that the aeroplane was created andflown by devoted and intrepid men, working with no thought or
reward, whose descendants are even now planning to pioneerthe stars." J. w. R. T.